Crash diets typically involve drastically limiting your food consumption to a very small list of acceptable foods and drinks. This can be in the form of the lemon juice diet, which only allows for drinking lemon juice with a dash of maple syrup throughout the day for 10 days, or the grape diet, which only allows for eating grapes all day for several days at a time. Many users of these diets report fast weight loss after the first few days, but this can often be misleading--many of these diets involve serious risks.
Increased Risk of Heart Problems
According to Health.com, crash diets are often mistakenly labeled as diets that help perform routine cleansing of your body. This cleansing is not necessary, as many crash diet proponents claim, but instead create problems in your body that pose serious health risks. A crash diet involving fewer than 1,200 calories per day can cause heart palpitations, increase cardiac stress and increase your risk of suffering a heart attack.
Causing Future Weight Gain
Crash diets help drop weight in the short term, but rapid weight loss isn't always good loss. According to Health.com, quick weight loss can slow down the metabolism, which could ultimately lead to future weight gain when your body's ability to process calories and other nutrients is diminished.
Reduced Mental Health
When the body is deprived of its wants and needs, it can cause irritability and unhappiness. In more extreme instances, your ability to concentrate may be reduced, and the focus required to maintain your weight loss regimen may inhibit your ability to perform and contribute fully in other areas.
Inconsistent Bowels
Because detox diets often limit your vitamins, minerals and other nutrients being consumed--and because many detox diets feature high-fiber, high water content foods--it isn't unusual for the stool of crash dieters to become more liquid, and the bowel movements often become more frequent when this happens, according to MSNBC.com. This can be even worse when you use laxatives as a means of flushing out the system. Over the course of a few days, consistent bathroom visits can cause irritation, discomfort and dehydration as your body continues to pass water and other nutrients.
Loss of Energy
According to MSNBC, several research studies have disputed the claim that detox diets lead to an increase in energy. More often, crash dieters become more fatigued and lethargic. It is also common for crash dieters to develop headaches and other aches and pains.
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